"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

RNC -- Day 1 -- Televised Imperialism

Apparently there was a great deal of frustration at the arena on the first day of the Republican convention, with the last gasps of the #NeverTrump movement. But it was, of course, the speeches at the end of the day which garnered the most attention on my newsfeed – especially Melania Trump’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech, the opening benediction, and the use of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” when Donald Trump came onstage.

First, Queen has previously denounced Trump for using the song and Brian May said no permission was sought or received to use the song again last night. He said they don’t want it used for any political purposes, but I imagine having it played for the Republican nominee with the most anti-LGBT platform in history would have Freddie Mercury turning over in his grave.

Second, the so-called “benediction” by Mark Burns last night was a “prayer” of sorts, but unlike anything I would call prayer. It praised Trump for “believ[ing] in the name of Jesus Christ” and declared Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party to be “our enemy.” It has been denounced by religious leaders of both the conservative and progressive branches of Christianity for being far too partisan and not remotely spiritual. Let me just say that apparently Mark Burns, like Donald Trump, believes “in the name of Jesus Christ,’ but not at all in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Peter may have denied Jesus three times, but he never saw Jesus as just a name. Similarly, there are reasons that devout Jews don’t speak or write the name of God. One website explains it this way: “Because a name represents the reputation of the thing named, a name should be treated with the same respect as the thing's reputation.” But if Mark Burns believed in the teachings of Jesus, in the example of Jesus, he never would have declared war on half the country. It’s one thing to denounce certain beliefs or policies (which would also be too partisan for a benediction), but to declare millions of people to be “our enemy” places Burns, and anyone who thinks like him, back into the Middle Ages and the times of the Crusades.

Finally, there is the plagiarism controversy. Yes, Melania Trump (if you believe her NBC interview) or her speech writers (if you believe Paul Manafort) took two paragraphs from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech and reworked them slightly for Melania’s 2016 speech. It’s plagiarism, pure and simple. But it’s more insidious, as The New Republic’s Brian Beutler explained: “[L]et’s not gloss over it, this is a depiction of a campaign – a campaign that nurtures white grievance and resentment – trying to profit off the work of a black woman, from an African American family that Trump and his supporters regularly belittle. The fact that the plagiarized text in question was about the value of hard work just makes matters worse.”

To this, let me add that Melania Trump spoke about her (very atypical) immigrant experience after Senator Jeff Sessions decried all (legal and illegal) immigration to the U.S. for taking American jobs.

So let me sum up the RNC on Day 1 – they collectively co-opted Christianity as a religion, along with ethics like hard-work and honesty; stole material from an intelligent and accomplished Black woman and an immensely talented gay man; and denounced immigration while trumpeting an immigrant. In essence, it was an orchestrated, multi-pronged attempt to take what is good, and right, and just in many peoples and cultures in the United States and twist it to Trump’s own political ends – to take credit for all of that for the benefit of a rich, straight white man.

In fact, the only thing which could make it worse is if they simultaneously denied doing anything of the kind, if they pretended that somehow only white straight culture was responsible for all the good in the world …

Oh wait … they did that too! Representative Steve King (R-IA), in an appearance on MSNBC yesterday, said “I would ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization [than old white people]?”

I will leave the long answer to that question to another post, or another blogger, but the short answer is right in front of you. Western Civilization has taken, stolen, and/or co-opted labor, resources, ideas, and technologies from other peoples and cultures and claimed them as their own. Now the GOP is replicating the process in front of our eyes, complete with a vengeful whitewashed Jesus.

And all for a man who has himself taken, stolen and/or co-opted labor, resources, ideas and technologies from others, left them behind in a string of bankruptcies and lawsuits, and claimed all the credit for himself.

So the #NeverTrump crowd was doomed to failure. Trump is the embodiment of the Republican Party. They’ve gotten exactly what they deserve, and they are showing us exactly who they are.

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